‘Sons Are a Gift From the Lord’

The Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale is a beautiful and solemn place of sweeping grass interspersed by bright white marble graves. Spread over 364.7 acres, it is the second-largest, by land mass, of the country’s 128 national cemeteries, but has the most graves, with more than 243,000 headstones marking the remains of 334,700 people, mostly military veterans and their spouses. “People always ask me if we have anyone important buried here,” said William Rhoades, the director of the cemetery and a 27-year veteran of the Coast Guard. “I always say: ‘Of course, we do. All of them.’”

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MICHAEL LUCIAN LICALZI, Marine first lieutenant, was 24 when he died on May 11, 2006, in the Anbar Province of Iraq.Credit
Top, fallen-coalition-heroes.com; bottom, Josh Haner/The New York Times

MICHAEL LUCIAN LICALZI, a graduate of Chaminade High School in Mineola, N.Y., and a Marine first lieutenant, was 24 when he died on May 11, 2006, in the Anbar Province of Iraq. He drowned when the M1A1 tank that he commanded rolled off a bridge and into a canal in a town called Kamah, north of Baghdad. He served with Company A, Second Tank Battalion, Second Marine Division, Second Marine Expeditionary Force, based out of Camp Lejeune, N.C. Although the cemetery, founded in 1936, was filled up — “buried out,” they say in the trade — by 1977, there is always room for service members like Lieutenant Licalzi who have been killed in action. By tradition, they are buried in Section R. “If we have a K.I.A.,” Mr. Rhoades said, “we’ll make space.”

HEADSTONES AT ALL NATIONAL CEMETERIES are made of either Vermont or Georgia marble (Georgia has a slightly darker vein), weigh 240 pounds and cost $172.50 to produce. Each stone is 4 inches thick and 42 inches high, with 18 inches under the soil and 24 inches rising above. Their look has changed only slightly since Montgomery C. Meigs, the quartermaster general of the Army, developed the design in 1870. Etchings on newer stones are coated with a black lithochrome paint to enhance visibility. Along with name, military branch and rank, and dates of birth and death, family members can add a religious emblem or additional inscription. Lieutenant Licalzi’s says, “Sons are a gift from the Lord.”

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Josh Haner/The New York Times

THE STONES ARE CLEANED annually with pressurized hoses and a chlorine-based whitening agent called Daybreak. Stones that have fallen out of place due to settling soil are either pulled out and reset by hand or tapped back into place with oak boards and a mallet. It takes five eight-hour days for six groundskeepers to cut the grass — not including trim work.

A MILITARY FUNERAL typically includes an honor guard of at least two service members, the presentation of a folded flag and a bugler playing taps. Soldiers killed in action get a three-rifle volley. A 21-gun salute, always by cannons, is reserved for presidents and other heads of state.

ANYONE HONORABLY discharged from the military — and any merchant mariner deployed during wartime — is eligible for free burial in a national cemetery. Interments and maintenance cost Long Island National about $3 million a year. “I tell people this is the most expensive burial in the world,” Mr. Rhoades said, “and it’s all paid for.”